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Heath Malcolm
Heath is a work addicted and morbidly serious man, often viewing the Genesis Project as man playing God to farther reach beyond their limits. His work with seeking a way to reverse the process that given humans "powers" has currently yielded little results, ending abruptly when the Protection Camps started. One of his current patients being hustled off, he disobeyed law enforce and said his good byes leaving him jobless, weak and now lost to what to do. History Amy Black met Joshua Malcolm on a cold late August morning, their bodies bumped as they both reached for a luggage bag believed to be one of theirs in Kennedy Airport, New York. As it turned out it wasn’t eithers, but an old lady’s, her thin hand pulled away while Joshua introduced himself pulling Amy into lunch to apologize. They dated for a few years and eventually married, both thought they knew everything about each other but truthfully they knew nothing. Joshua had been the age of twelve during one of the last Genesis Project trials before the government disbanded it, leaving him with a large trust fund on his twenty-first birthday and forced to keep the secret of his involvement tight lipped. He made his living driving a truck long distances over state lines, the pay was decent allowing them to create some sort of average life for his soon to be family. Heath was born on a late, autumn day on September 16, 2000, in a local New York Hospital being held in his mother’s arms, wrapped up by a blue fleece blanket. His father got to see him several days later and loved him on first sight, his hand stroked though the light colored wisp of hair, ignoring the obvious signs of something not right. Time passed, and days became months then years in Heath’s life. He was living in an average, crime moderate neighbor and grew to a work alcoholic father absent from Heath’s life, making him slightly bitter when he drew closer to puberty. One night, after Heath's eleventh birthday had passed, there was fighting happening down stairs between his father and mother causing the boy to draw closer just to listen in. The loud booming voice of Joshua Malcolm shook the house while he demanded to take Heath for some testing, worry and excitement etched in his voice while his mother refused to let him. Things escalated and secrets were brought out of the dark. A heart breaking discovery for both Heath and Joshua was Heath wasn’t really his son at all, Amy admitted to having a sexual fling just a week before his return in her lonely moments of weakness. Silence filled the room on Heath’s rush down stairs to watch his father leaving out the front door, his eyes cold at them while his mother held him back from following. All his life he had ignored the claims, the suggestions and evidence only to find out they were true. Wounds, even unseen ones, heal someday and by the time he turned sixteen Heath no longer resented his mother. It wasn’t the same for his once father. Anger had festered in Joshua Malcolm and twisted into an overwhelming need for revenge that he managed to steal a small dose of Cerebralin. Later on Heath would discovered it was through the man's father invovlement as a past lab technician that allowed him access to the serum. When the project was disbanded, Joshua’s father was able to procure a single vial, passing it off as being used on a test subject in his last report to cover his tracks. Over time slowly studying the properties in small amounts to prevent detection, hoping to fatten his own pocket. Little did the man realize his son’s need to punish his wife would result in his self-injecting what little was left, returning his ability to manipulate energy and cause a surge of electrical current setting flame to the house. Though Heath could never prove it, he knew Joshua was responsible for the fire leaving his whole back scarred and his mother burned alive. Being seventeen and left overwhelming debt from both medical bills to the funeral arrangements of his mother, the only ease was there wasn’t a body to bury just ashes, that when her life insurance check came there wasn’t anything left to pay on his house. It forced him to move one with little allowance for grief. His mother gone and no one left in his life, he was force to fend for himself. Heath worked the rest of his freshmen through senior school years between juggling multiple jobs and saving money for college, his nights barely spent sleeping in the cramp apartment he managed to scrape up enough to live in. He obtained a scholarship thanks to his hard work and determination, first aiming to become a surgeon, his studies majored in doctoring and the heart area of the human body. His first choice in career was becoming a doctor. Four year earning his Bachelor’s degree, Heath fought tooth and nail to acquire top grades even as his bills kept piling up. During the last year of his medical school training before moving onto four more years of residential, Heath’s world threaten to fall apart at the seams until a fellow student by the name of Margret Evans had approached him, a small and timid woman with warm smile that made him smile back. He was twenty four then, young and wrapped up in his own problems that it was a wonder he had noticed her at all approaching him. Yet there she was. He thought it was love at first sight. A short lived love that lasted about two years until he discovered she was a secret Nova, a female that had empathy, the ability to manipulate others emotions, as she stopped a young guy from committing suicide on one of the apartment buildings. At first he was confused but then it all clicked, from how he was first drawn unexplained to her or why she was able to ease conflict so well even in the most violent of cases pushing him to ask if she had ever used her gift on him. She told the truth, not feeling guilt over the action, that she did and for that moment, Heath wondered if his love for her really existed at all. He requested a new housing situation and never looked back, his mind made up on leaving the medical profession forever. It was when his attention turned to genetics around about the middle of his last years in med school, a year after both his heart break and Novas went public, his current career just a reminder of pain and betrayal. His true calling came as his interest sparked to becoming a lab geneticist, more and more Novas being discovered as the years went on making him reflect on the possibility that his mother's murder could’ve been one. A need to understand how his "father" could engulf his home into flames was now what he discovered was at the core of his desire, feeling more complete as he searched for answers with little progression until the Genesis Project. They hired him on during his third year of college due to his talent for the trade, becoming just a lowly lab assistant then and unknowingly studying the results of his “father’s” tests. It all made sense then the more he learned about the effects of a substance called Cerbranlin which gave the Novas their abilities and improving another called NHS-1 or Novacaine as it commonly nicked named. This had only driven him farther to seeking a solution. Most people assumed Novas could control their abilities from the start or some that it was it amazing to be one of the gifted like those that would be associated later on with organizations like SEAR or pro-Nova groups, but Heath knew otherwise. There was one certain case that lingered in his mind. Her name was Jenny Barnes, a young girl just hitting puberty, had developed a disturbing Nova power: the ability to absorb radiation though touching. Since she was young and her powers budding, Jenny had little control over the unpredictable swell and embed of her ability often producing flare ups at any moment. This experience had altered Heath’s perspective on his reasons for his work but only slightly. The military program had taken on the little girl’s case in 2030, a few years before the act was passed, because of her father’s connections and wealth to cure her of her affliction. Her unpredictable ability currently in its youth had dangerous flare ups and cost the mother’s life, just farther proof to him that some lines were never meant to be crossed. When the men now began moving Jenny into one of the “Protection Camps” from the recently passed act, he protested and it was ignored. The last thing he did was comfort the child when no one else did, pulling his arms around her even as pain rippled through his body and staying upright until she was taken from his sight…then he passed out, the world becoming black. Personality '-Prejudice: ' Through his belief of the Genesis Project being a moral mistake on the part of the government, especially to those Novas that suffer through their power or would used them to threaten others, Heath tends to be wary of most Novas based purely on the fact he seen what a few were capable of. It doesn’t help in his mind there are some God made lines that humans were never meant to cross so he finds it extremely hard to understand why someone would want to keep their powers when one day, they risk hurting the people around or being different from the world. Though he’ll never admit it, this desire to fix what the Nova’s existence has broken is hidden among his good intentions to find a cure.-Morbidly Serious''Most sarcastic remarks, playful teasing and often joke punch lines go right over Heath’s head due to his extremely serious nature. Often gaining a response of being taken literally or bitter logic when his work is the butt of the joke, causing a frown to crease his face before turning his back to the offender.'' +Soft Hearted: ' ''Often people mistake his prejudice and lack of understanding about a Nova as meaning he is cold hearted, not at all true. Inside Heath can be compassionate towards them as individuals and part of the human race, because despite housing immense strength they would’ve still been human if the Genesis Project never existed. A subject named Jenny is proof not all Novas want their abilities or need them, sadden by the fact she will go through life unable to touch another living soul without bring them unimaginative pain if he doesn’t discover a cure. It doesn’t help no matter how much he hates it, Heath once loved one and to this day harbors faded traces of that emotion. Likely it will never die completely. '''+/-Persistent : To stubborn to quit, Heath continues to pound away at whatever task his is currently occupied by. It is a trait he developed in college thanks to late night study secessions to keep his scholarship and years of slumping over the computer fast asleep. As positive as this trait is in finding solutions, the health effects are severe and if not for his co-workers and superiors then Heath might’ve wasted away to nothing. '+Quick Thinker: ' Heath can think on his feet with equally fast reaction, not making him useless in the field should he be required there. The bad part is, though at the time the action might be appropriate, he doesn’t sometimes realize the repercussions it might have in the future. His main concern is usually in solving the problem quickly and either lowering the tension source, easing the feeling of risk or danger then what is the best option to handle it. '+Patient: ' He never thinks of time, the length of accomplishing something or allowing himself to lose his temper. It makes it easier to work even with the most difficult of co-workers and often discovering things that can be looked over after a long time period, able to know he will someday discover the solution to the Nova problem. Relationships Ian Reyes - Apartment Neighbor Other While working, Heath wears a white lab coat over a long sleeve shirt and grey slacks. A red tie is worn loosely about his neck, tending to slip slight sideways and appearing sloppy. His feet don rather, worn out tennis shoes that clash with his current work uniform. In his casual wear Heath sports simple solid colored tee shirts and worn out jeans even if he’s rarely seen in them.